S3 Ep305: Live: Diddy Trial

**Apologies for the audio issues in advance! We are working on making sure our audio is better for future livestreams!**Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs faces serious charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. His trial, which commenced in May 2025, has brought forth testimonies from key witnesses, shedding light on the complex and controversial aspects of the case. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets!https://www.crimecon.com/CC25Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Derrick Levasseur?

  Welcome to the bonus episode. We got this right away. No problems at all. No issues. Worked out flawlessly. Stephanie and I have been talking. We know we've been doing the episodes, but we really wanted to get back to our roots and we're going to try to do lives more going forward. It's going to be more conversational, interacting with you guys in the chat. We really want to work out all the kinks. A lot of people have been doing the YouTube membership as well, where you guys get like special emojis, get bonus episodes. So if you're watching on YouTube, welcome. You can see us. If you're listening on audio, welcome as well. Again, apologize if the audio is off at all. We will figure it out and it'll be perfect next time. So Stephanie,

• 0:42Derrick Levasseur?

  why don't you talk about why we're here tonight? Because you were the one that kind of suggested this and it's a pretty popular topic right now.

• 0:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, we wanted to talk a little bit about Diddy. We just finished the second week of the federal trial against Sean Combs. And there was so much. I mean, I've been following it every single day. I've been watching the creators who are following it. It's a federal trial, so it's not going to be broadcast. And I just think that so many shocking things have come out. I had like 14 pages of notes. I sent them to Derek last night so he could sort of catch up. And yeah, I just kind of wanted to go over some testimonies, some things that are

• 1:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  going on. But first, I think it's important to talk about, because it's a federal trial, what he's being charged with and, and pretty much why the government thinks that they can continue charging him with things and that they're going to get a guilty verdict. Because I've heard a lot of people talk about, this is a domestic violence case. And it's not. The first week was basically Diddy's ex-girlfriend of over a decade, Cassie Ventura, and her testimony about her time with Sean Combs and what happened as far as physical abuse, financial abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse.

• 2:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  And so there's a lot of people, men and women, who are kind of on the internet giving their opinions, saying, "Why are we listening to this testimony? This sounds like domestic violence." And what I can promise you is that the United States government is not going to waste all of these time and resources and money on a domestic violence case. Cass's testimony, I believe, is a foundation to things that they're going to continue to prove. And Derek, do you want to quickly go over what he's been charged with? What the United States government is claiming?

• 2:55Derrick Levasseur?

  So I know the big charge, and people are saying in here that, you know, what is racketeering? And we'll get to that. So I think it was right in your notes, the exact charges here at the top, I saw it. There's a bunch of charges, but overall, what page was it on? Okay, it was initially, this is the lawsuit initially.

• 3:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, so if you go all the way to the bottom, I kind of said, so what the government's trying to prove is sex trafficking and racketeering, which is the RICO charge. And a RICO charge is a blanket sort of charge that it was initially come up with in like the 1970s to go after huge criminal syndicates like the mafia. And it's kind of now merged into a federal tool that prosecutors use in cases involving gangs, drug cartels, corrupt corporations, and then also high-profile figures like Sean Combs. So in plain terms, the government is saying, "This person did not just commit a crime.

• 3:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  They created, they led, or they were part of an organization whose whole purpose was to commit multiple crimes, and they did this over time in a coordinated way, like a business operation." And under the law, the prosecution must prove that a criminal enterprise existed. So this wasn't just a one-time scheme. This was a long, structured group, formal in or informal, that was committed to breaking the law, that the defendant, Sean Combs in this case, was associated with the enterprise. They were part of it, or they helped operate it, and that they engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. This means two or more related crimes, called predicate acts, within a 10-year period,

• 4:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  such as sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug distribution, money laundering, witness tampering, bribery, extortion, murder.

• 4:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I, I don't understand why people are saying they don't think that the government is well on their way to proving this because they are, even with Cassie's testimony being mainly based on the domestic and sexual violence that happened between herself and Sean Combs. It's showing that he basically coerced her into performing these sex acts and also that he had people, employees and such, who assisted him in, in these acts. And then there's also

• 5:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  tons and tons of drugs included, which includes apparently ecstasy tablets shaped like President Obama's had, which is weird, but there we are.

• 5:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, so i- i- in addition to everything you just said, in many instances when it comes to racketeering, it'll include some type of profit that's being gained from it. And when you think about the term racketeering, what is racketeering? It's a racket, right? That's where it's derived from. So a racket or an enterprise or an organization of a group of people, and this isn't like some official group of people, but it's a series of individuals who are working together collaboratively to, to carry out multiple crimes. And when you look at this, I'm not saying I agree with this, but the argument is going to be made that most of the crimes being discussed specifically by Cassie are voluntarily. She

• 6:17Derrick Levasseur?

  wanted to do it, right? They're bringing up text messages where they're showing her saying, "I can't wait for another FO," which was referred to, which was short for freak-off.

• 6:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 6:26Derrick Levasseur?

  And that she was doing this because she wanted to make Diddy happy and that all participants involved in these parties, these white parties, these freak-offs, they all wanted to be there. And, and, and the guys who, who weren't there voluntarily were hired. They were, they were male escorts. They were paid to be there. And so the defense is going to come in there and say, "Oh, this was done, you know, because they all wanted to be there or they were paid to be there." But there are other things that are already coming out. And I was saying it earlier- Where this goes much higher than just these sex parties, right? Because you have this this alias that that Diddy was using Frank Black. And one of the things amongst many things, including the thousand bottles of lube or old baby oil that they found.

• 7:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Johnson and Johnson baby oil.

• 7:10Derrick Levasseur?

  Was was these pill bottles that were prescribed to a Frank Black. And as we all know, Sean Combs, his real name is not Frank Black. So he had like a concierge doctor who was like, you know, for the wealthy, where he could just call this person and they're like a specific doctor just for him or maybe a few clients. And if this doctor is prescribing medication to a name that does not exist, you guys all know this, that is a huge crime. They cannot do that. You cannot issue prescriptions to aliases. But because of this preferential treatment, these doctors are willing to look the other way and maybe they're being compensated. These are all things that have to be looked into. So you have rappers, actors,

• 7:55Derrick Levasseur?

  producers, doctors, whoever else is part of these these business elites who are all participating in these acts and just on the surface, it appears that these women were being drugged and then potentially being sold off for sex acts. And potentially one of those facilitators was Diddy amongst other people. So, yeah, I think it would absolutely qualify under the racketeering charge and conspiracy charge. And I think it's it's gonna be difficult for Diddy and his team to get out of this.

• 8:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, I mean, even to go

• 8:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  to a different place, just with Cassie, you remember this video, the surveillance video from the hotel that came out from that 2016 incident. And at that point in this hotel, because that's where these freak-offs happened.

• 8:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  In this hotel, Cassie's taking part in a freak-off. And she does not want to be there anymore. She attempts to leave and you can see Shawn Combs leave the room wearing a towel wrapped around his waist. And he's chasing her down the hall. He catches up with her. He beats her up. He gets her down. He's kicking her. He then drags her back to the room. He takes her purse, which has her money in it. He takes her phone, which is her communication. And he drags her back to the room. So when these ignorant people on the internet who have clearly never been involved in any kind of domestic violence or chorus of control situation.

• 9:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  When they say, why didn't she just leave? Well, that's what happened when she tried to just leave. He didn't let her. So this is you're physically, whether you're coercing somebody to take part in something physically or you're paying them or you're threatening them or blackmailing them, which the government has also had testimony that Shawn Combs filmed these sex acts. And then when Cassie would say she didn't want to do it anymore, or when she just displeased him in any way, he would pull those up and he would say, oh, I'm going to send these out. I'm going to release them. That is blackmail. That's another form of coercion to have somebody take part in an activity that they don't want to take part in.

• 10:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  And also, when you talk about the texts where she was like, oh, I can't wait for another freak-off. She's explained this very thoroughly. And I don't even think anybody who's, I think anybody who's been in a relationship will say that sometimes you do things for people that you don't want to do because you think it's going to make them happy and it's going to kind of buy you time. And there was a psychologist who testified in the trial. About trauma bonds and about course of control and she said, this is a method of placating this person where it's like, I'll just tell them what they need to hear. I gotta get through at the point that he had this blackmail on her and that he financially controlled

• 11:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  her because what I don't think people understand is Sean Combs basically outbid to other record labels to get Cassie as an artist. He then signed her to a 10 album contract. He had her writing and recording music for albums that never saw the light of day. And she described this as busy work. He knew he wasn't going to release her music. He had her keeping busy, thinking that she was doing something to further her career. And she's not getting paid for any of these albums. And he's paying her rent and he's paying her car payment and he's telling her, don't worry, I got you. I got enough money for both of us. But then when she would do

• 11:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  something he didn't like, he would lock her out of her house, or he would take her car, or he would take her electronics. So when somebody's controlling your career, this is a form of course of control. He's having her make music that's never going to be released. And you might say, well, that's stupid. How can he benefit off of her financially as an artist if he's not releasing her music? He never wanted to release her music. He signed her because she was a beautiful, gorgeous, talented 19 year old girl. And he said, I want her as my possession. I want her to belong to me. I bought her and now she's mine. And she's not going to release music because I don't want her to become successful in her own right. I don't want her to be out there seen in the spotlight. I want her to be in

• 12:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  my shadow doing what I want her to do. So he's got her career in his hands. She can't leave because he's got a contract with her. She can't go and sign with another label. He's got a contract with her. She can't do the thing that makes her money. That is coercive control.

• 12:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, and it started from the beginning. There was, I believe, a 17-year difference in age between them and

• 12:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Seventeen, yeah.

• 12:55Derrick Levasseur?

  What's interesting about this whole thing is that, you know, Diddy's defense team will point out the text messages where she's like, "Oh, I'm always ready for another freak-off" or whatever, but they fail to mention the text messages where she's talking about mouth sores and how she's in pain, and him simply saying, "I'm sorry." And by the way, these mouth sores are from all this sex that she didn't want to have, to the point where Cassie and I apologize if this is too much for some people, where she had full-blown infections from this sexual intercourse to the point where she was just drinking water as much as she could to try to flush out her system, and she was still engaging in more sex, because Diddy would essentially set up the entire thing. He would have her go get waxed, have her look a certain way, have her do her nails, wear a certain outfit,

• 13:40Derrick Levasseur?

  have the lighting in the room a certain way, and he would kind of direct the scene. He would have these male escorts come in, and they would start off with oral sex, and then it would transition to intercourse, and he would just watch and pleasure himself this whole time, but back to what-

• 13:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hold on. He wouldn't just-

• 13:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I mean, listen, I'm scratching the surface here.

• 14:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  He would basically, he would watch her with the male escort, and it would be a way to like fluff himself, and then it would take so long, because you could never move on to the next step until he said it was time. So if he wants to watch her with another man for 15 hours, he's watching her with another man for 15 hours.

• 14:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, didn't they say it would go on for days in some cases?

• 14:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, they would, yeah, three days sometimes. And they would testify, these male escorts would say, "At some point, Cassie and Diddy would leave the room, and that's when Cassie and Diddy would have their sexual encounters, usually after the male escort finished, if you understand what I mean. And then, Diddy, in the other room with Cassie, would have her use the lubrication that the male escort provided

• 14:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  in their sexual encounter, and he would have her like rub it on his nipples and stuff, so-

• 14:58Derrick Levasseur?

  He's a sick dude.

• 15:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's sick.

• 15:00Derrick Levasseur?

  He also would have them urinate on her when the lubrication wasn't enough the other way.

• 15:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, he was in her mouth.

• 15:07Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, and someone else just said in the chat, and I don't want to fail to mention it. Yeah, she got so many UTIs that the antibiotics that she was being prescribed, they stopped working.

• 15:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cipro, which is your standard antibiotic.

• 15:18Derrick Levasseur?

  Wouldn't work. And that's how many times she was getting, having to be treated for it. So it was bad. Can I talk about, so we obviously, we want to talk about that because this is how sick of a guy Diddy is and, and on a bigger scale, he wasn't the only one doing it. You think about all the people that have bragged about these Diddy parties over the years. They're regretting it now. But, real quickly, when we talk about the racketeering.

• 15:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  Freak-offs were different, I think, like.

• 15:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Those were different, but I'm, I'm, I'm gonna assume that some people were partaking in these activities and it wasn't just an isolated thing with Diddy. But, when we go back to the racketeering, and we're gonna skip around a little bit here, and this is what this is. This isn't crime weekly news, it's more of just conversational, but when you're thinking about the racketeering charge and if they're gonna end, end up having enough for that, because I think that's where I shed the most light, that's where I'm gonna be the most valuable to you. It's not just the sexual acts that we're talking about. Kid Cudi, who's an artist, you guys probably know him as well. He dated, uh, Cassie down the road a little bit, and there was a point where they basically car bombed his car, allegedly.

• 16:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  Allegedly.

• 16:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Allegedly. Allegedly car bombed his car, they cut open the roof of the car, threw a Molotov cocktail in there, allegedly. And Kid Cudi later had a meeting with, it's almost like a movie. They later had a meeting at a, at a location where Diddy was like, as described as like a Marvel villain.

• 16:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  He said a Marvel supervillain.

• 16:36Derrick Levasseur?

  A Mar- Marvel supervillain, and basically at one point while they're shaking hands, Kid Cudi says to him, "Hey, we're good, but who's gonna take care of my car? You know what you guys did." And all Diddy did was lean in and go, "I don't know what you're talking about." So, there's a lot of other crimes involved with this organization intimidation and the way they gained control over people. I'm sure there's some bribery in there where individuals who may not even be famous.

• 17:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  There is bribery, the hotel's security guy.

• 17:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Some of this stuff, and Diddy was recording a lot of it, most of it without their consent. And therefore, would have those tapes to use against them later if these individuals who were in high positions decided not to do something for Diddy. Now, what those things are, we may never know the, the full extent of it, but is it crazy to think? That if these sex parties were going on and there were individuals, whether it's politicians or producers or CEOs of big companies, doing things that they don't want to get out there because they're going to these parties, knowing that these women are potentially gonna do whatever they want them to do and they're not gonna ask questions, whether they're on drugs or whether they're being forced to do it, they don't care. They're gonna leave

• 17:46Derrick Levasseur?

  and then later, maybe a year or two down the road, someone comes to this person and says, "Hey, you're in charge of this or you're in charge of that and you know what? We want this person to be in that position." "Oh, you're not interested in them?" Well, that's funny because a year or two ago, you went to something at, you know, Diddy's place and man, how bad would it be if that tape got out? Now, I'm not saying it's going to, but man, that would be the end of your career. That would ruin it with your wife, your kids, your whole life would be over. Man, I really hope that never happens, but you have a good day and then all of a sudden, that person that they wanted is in that position. So, it sounds like a movie, but this is real. This is actually happening.

• 18:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, and I mean, he did that to Cassie. You know, she was upset with him. They were coming back from a film festival on a plane. He, she moved seats so she didn't have to sit next to him. He moved next to her and started playing a video of a freak off on his laptop and he told her, "I'll release this. I'll release this." He, he said it. It's not, you know, according to her, but once again, there are also people who are like, "Oh, why is she even testifying? She sued him back in 2023. They settled for $20 million. Why is she testifying? This is an attention grab." Y'all clearly don't understand how federal trials work. I'm sure if Cassie had any choice,

• 19:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  she wouldn't be sitting here reliving this and talking about it in such a public way for idiots to judge her and say what they would do in her shoes and in her situation. If she was subpoenaed, her only choices were testify or go to jail. She's not making this decision. It's not an attention grab. And honestly, based what this dude did to her, $20 million is nothing.

• 19:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, no, no, and that was, there is a distinction, right? That was a civil case. This is a federal case. And I, I, I thought I saw on the notes, I don't know if the dates were correct, but this is, was it in November? Where they filed the lawsuit, was it within a day that they settled?

• 19:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  Next day, so November sixteenth, I believe she filed.

• 19:52Derrick Levasseur?

  That was a date, that was a date, I'm looking at it right here.

• 19:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, who I think was Ben Brathman at that time, he came out, he's like, Diddy vehemently denies these allegations, this is insulting. The next day they settled. Now, does everybody who settles, it doesn't mean they're guilty? No. In this situation, allegedly, in my opinion, he's a hundred million.

• 20:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, he, he knew that she knew where the bodies were buried. In my opinion, you know, and I, we gotta qualify this because this is a big celebrity. We're a small channel, but you never know, you never know. So we gotta qualify everything, but yeah, I think that there's, there's a spectrum, right? You have someone like Jay-Z and I don't know Jay-Z personally, but Jay-Z was accused. Well, uh, Jay-Z was involved in something and, and, and Busby was the lawyer behind it and he, he fought it. Jay-Z fought it and he fought back and it all got dropped, right? Where you have Diddy, on the other hand, within a day, coming to a deal, twenty million dollars, just like that, just to, to have Cassie go away. So, like Stephanie said, does it automatically mean they're guilty? No, especially when they have that much money. Twenty million dollars to him is not like twenty million dollars to us.

• 20:56Derrick Levasseur?

  But it's still a substantial amount of money, make no mistake about it. And it, it just does makes you wonder because you think about all these people, I remember, I was born in eighty-four. Puff Daddy, Mace, they were big, big parts of my childhood. And I used to look at these white parties and every celebrity you could think of was attending these events. Now, I, I think Stephanie makes a good point. You don't want to conflate these, these white parties with these freak off parties because they're two separate things. It's very possible that the majority of the celebrities who attended these white parties and these big parties hosted by Diddy in the Hamptons and at, in Miami, had no clue what he was doing behind closed doors. That may have been a separate party.

• 21:40Derrick Levasseur?

  So I'm not automatically conflating the two by saying, yeah, if you were at that Diddy party for the white party, you're definitely part of this. But it does make you ask the question, how much did people know and who was involved?

• 21:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Um, you also have to, somebody mentioned Usher. This, Diddy's been doing this forever. He will take these young artists, male or female, and basically trauma bond them to him. He did this to Usher. I believe he did this to Justin Bieber.

• 22:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, Usher testified as well, I think, or Usher was involved with it, right?

• 22:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not yet. Kid Cudi testified.

• 22:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Kid Cudi definitely testified.

• 22:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Usher may testify, we, we don't know. It's a government case, so they're not gonna reveal who's, who's coming, but like I said, we're just at the end of the second week. And we've had multiple people testify. And Cassie's not the only victim additionally. There's not just Cassie saying these things. Other people are accusing him of, of the same things. And yeah, it's, he, he's Jeffrey Epstein. So it's like, it seems like a movie, but we also know what happens all the time. And it's all coming to the light now. Their power, that Hollywood's golden age is over.

• 23:03Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I think that so many of these celebrities just haven't gotten the memo yet. But they've spent decades abusing people, using their power, their influence, their money, to, to get what they want and to continue this lifestyle of basically like, we're kings, we're gods on Mount Olympus. We can do whatever we want. We don't live by the same rules as these peasants who buy our records and then watch our movies and keep us in our, in the lap of luxury. We can do whatever we want. We can take drugs and drive. We can drink and drive. We can abuse our spouses and get it caught on surveillance and then pay somebody off and nothing's ever going to happen to us. The underbelly of the entertainment industry is being exposed.

• 23:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, look at Ashton Kutcher, okay? This man runs a nonprofit for sex trafficking. He's also, behind the scenes, when he didn't think anybody was gonna see or know, writing a letter to the judge on the Danny Masterson case, asking that he, you know, go easy on him because Danny Masterson's such a good guy. And now Ashton Kutcher, who also is tight with Diddy.

• 24:15Stephanie Harlowe?

  We all know who he is. We all see who he is. It's disgusting. They act one way in public and then in private, they do whatever the hell they want and think that they're never going to be held accountable and it's done and I love it.

• 24:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, my final words on this one is is simply, I really want to see how deep these roots go because he couldn't have done this by himself. There's a lot of people who are covering things up, making things go away and lying for him. I'll give you one example, and there's a lot of them, by the way. I'm talking hundreds of people were knew what was going on exactly. And they did whatever Diddy told them to do to make sure it stayed under wraps as long as it did. But I'm going to give you one example. So for most of the time in the beginning, when Cassie first got linked up with Diddy, he he had a she had a boyfriend. Okay, and Diddy knew about it and really didn't give a shit and

• 25:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not for most of the time, for just like

• 25:09Derrick Levasseur?

  The beginning of it, the beginning of it.

• 25:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:11Derrick Levasseur?

  So he knew that, didn't care, and there were multiple occasions where he would try to get separate her from her boyfriend. There was an event he invited her to. The boyfriend showed up, he made her made a bit stink about it, said that it was just for her. But then there was even an occasion where they went as far as creating a flyer for this fictitious performance that Cassie was going to be performing at to make her think that she was going to be performing at this event so that the boyfriend wouldn't come because it was a work event. And it was all a lie. There was no performance, no event. He just wanted to get her alone. And according to Cassie, that was the occasion where allegedly he got her drugged up again.

• 25:51Derrick Levasseur?

  And they had sex for the first time. And this was after her telling him on multiple occasions that she had a boyfriend. So

• 25:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  He he, the boyfriend worked for him.

• 26:00Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. So so Diddy had a lot of people. It wasn't Diddy who printed up this flyer. It wasn't Diddy who put in the back work to make sure it looked like this was an actual event, so it wouldn't raise any flags for for Cassie or her boyfriend. There was a team of people who understood what he was all about, what his motives were, and they did it anyways. So I hope obviously Diddy's held accountable for what he's done, but I want heads to roll with everybody else because if they're not doing it for him, they're a lackey and they'll do it for somebody else. So everybody's got to pay.

• 26:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  There's um, one of his former assistants, I think it was 2007 to 2009, this man worked for Diddy and he's testifying under, you know, having immunity.

• 26:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  And basically because he witnessed the abuse of Cassie and he did nothing to stop it. We also have security guards who not only witnessed the abuse of Cassie and did nothing to stop it, but in certain scenarios chased her down when she ran away and brought her back to Diddy. This is a RICO charge.

• 27:09Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, agree. They're gonna articulate it, they're gonna build the case, they're gonna try to, they're gonna prove it over a period of time. Maybe he'll be found guilty, maybe he won't. I hate to say it, but when I'm talking about people that might be involved with Diddy or others like Diddy, it goes all the way up to legislators and judges. No shocker there. So I don't know who's in his pockets and I'm concerned about it because justice is not blind. The wealthy do not live by the same laws as everybody else. And I don't know who is on the payroll or who they have dirt on. I just don't know. So I'm really interested to see how this whole thing plays out, but I'm, I'm overall, I'm glad we're doing this because

• 27:50Derrick Levasseur?

  in what we do on Crime Weekly News and especially on Crime Weekly, it's more structured. There's a chronological order to it. We have to get through certain points. With these lives and we used to do them back in the day. Stephanie and I want to get back to this. We want to do these bonus episodes slash lives. We're gonna, we're not gonna, we wanna, we want to under promise, over deliver here. So we'd like to do them every week. We can't promise that's gonna happen, but we're gonna hop on here at least once, if not more a month, and periodically just talk to you guys. We want to do it where we set it up. We want to perfect it. And when we do, I know a lot of you have been DMing us and emailing us for the YouTube memberships because it comes with all these cool features.

• 28:31Derrick Levasseur?

  It comes with the special emojis that we create that you'll be able to use in the chat. It'll highlight your comments in the chat and all the videos. Um, we'll do bonus content. We'll have Q and As where tonight we're talking about a specific topic, but we're, we're also going to do Q and As where we hop on and just discuss the week's case or what's going on with Crime Weekly or Criminal Coffee. So bear with us. We, we have some plans going forward. We want to continue to improve Crime Weekly, not just stay stagnant. And we, we appreciate everyone who has supported us so far, but there's more to do. And again, we want to get back to the roots of what we were doing because that's when it was the most fun.

• 29:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, I just had something in my head I was gonna say.

• 29:16Derrick Levasseur?

  I was like, wow, yes.

• 29:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was there and as soon as your voice stopped, it it also stopped.

• 29:22Derrick Levasseur?

  Stage fright. No, I mean, I think, like I said, I think it's great what we're doing and I from the comments in here, you know, that's that's what we like to see and this will be available, if you guys may be hearing this on audio, it'll also be on video. We'll keep it up and for now, it's probably just gonna be available like this and it'll be just, you know, it'll pop up when it pops up, but once we get on a roll, um, we're gonna get it rolling. We've also talked about a Discord as well. I know a lot of people do that. These are all things that we can do under the YouTube membership. I gotta go through the details of it. Our number one priority every week is a good Crime Weekly news and a good Crime Weekly. But now with our our lives in order and we're getting things together where we're looking for ways of improving on the experience with Crime Weekly because it's not just a podcast, it's a community.

• 30:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  And you wanna take a couple of questions before?

• 30:10Derrick Levasseur?

  We can take a couple of questions, why not? It doesn't have to be Diddy related. And we'll do that on these, these are great. We'll do we'll do the lot, we'll do the bonus episodes and we will take a couple of questions at the end. One that just came up right here from Fuzali. Stephanie and Derek, you two have helped me through so much. I admire you and respect you both. Happy to be part of Crime Weekly and Criminal Coffee Co. family. Well, that wasn't a question, but thank you so much. And that's a, that's amazing. It almost makes me a little teary eyed, but no, it is amazing. And we wouldn't be here without you guys. And again, we know you guys have been with us through the ups and downs. We are human beings just like you and we're very fortunate to be in the position we're in. And we don't wanna take that for granted. So we're gonna keep kicking out great episodes. The Darlie Rutier series came out today.

• 30:54Derrick Levasseur?

  It's already getting a lot of engagement on it. We knew it would, but we wanna do more. We we remember where we were five years ago when we started December 4th of 2020. And we're gonna get back to that and with the the accessibility of Patreon and and YouTube memberships and all these different things you can do, like keychains and stuff you can have for different tiers and I'm looking into all of it. So it's coming, you just have to bear with us. Uh, Jess says Derek is such a reality star. I don't know what that means. That could be a compliment. That could be an insult. Either way, I will take it because it's true. It's technically true.

• 31:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  What do you do for fun outside of the podcast?

• 31:37Derrick Levasseur?

  You go first.

• 31:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know.

• 31:41Derrick Levasseur?

  Keep it, keep it PG Stephanie, keep it PG.

• 31:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  I have to have a better work-life balance, I'm gonna be honest. I don't do much for fun. Cause it's not just the podcast, it's YouTube. And then I have the kids, so I, I work all day. It's, it's seven o'clock almost. I'll go home. Um, maybe eat, I don't know. Get the kids ready for bed. We'll hang out a little bit. And then I'll go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again. So I really do, I need a better life. Work-life balance. What do I do for fun?

• 32:15Derrick Levasseur?

  I'll answer that in a second as well. Um, another person said, uh, we have Indigo Twins, says, I appreciate you both so much. Is there a specific case you got, that got you into true crime? Or inspired you to be an Officer Derek? So first I'll answer the, the other question. For me, just like you, we got a lot going on. But I do like fishing. Haven't, haven't fished once this year, but that is the plan. And I'm really into 3D printing. I like the, um, using the software to create different 3D models and try to print them and see if I can make them functional and using my solder and iron to install electronics into that. I've been doing the building of electronic devices for years. Stephanie knew this, I'd build like alarm clocks. Now I can build the plastics parts of it to encase

• 32:59Derrick Levasseur?

  those electronics. So it's kind of full circle and I do like the modeling software that's out there. It kind of gets my brain going and kind of goes along with like the detective thinking. So I like it. As far as this question, for me, grew up just like a lot of people. Um, had, had a interesting childhood, had some times where the, where I had to call police as a kid. Um, due to circumstances in my own home and I remembered at, at that time, the phone had buttons, like a police shield, a fire. And then like an emergency button, like a rescue button. And I would hit the police button. I would sit with my brothers and sisters and the best feeling in the world was hearing, cause the, the window was right next to the phone. Was hearing the cops coming. Cause I knew whatever was going on, it was gonna be over. So as I got older, I wanted to play professional baseball, but realized quickly that wasn't gonna happen.

• 33:44Derrick Levasseur?

  Took a, uh, my degree in criminal justice and had an opportunity to work in the City where I grew up and there were many instances as a police officer where I showed up to a call and there were kids there who had called us. And so life kind of came full circle at that point. How about you, Stephanie? Was there a specific case that got you into this? I know you started doing makeup and then you transitioned. So what was that first case that you covered?

• 34:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh.

• 34:12Derrick Levasseur?

  You don't even know it. Wow.

• 34:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, that would be a long time ago. That got me into true crime. Not that got me into talking about it, but it was. Uh, the H H Holmes case. I read a book about H H Holmes and I like history. You know that? So it kind of merged those two things together for me and and then I started kind of going down a rabbit hole with that and and I was, it was gone. I loved true crime. That was it.

• 34:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Okay. We'll take, we'll take one more. Let's get a good one. I know some people are mentioning different cases in here. For example, Karen Reed, that's not going to be a question at the end. We're going to hop on here a few times. That'll be something where instead of it taking up a crime weekly news, we may talk about the Karen Reed situation on the three lives. Because it's just shooting the shit as the updates come in. So that's what this, that's what void this will fill. Um, but at one other question.

• 35:04Derrick Levasseur?

  You're seeing them too, right, Stephanie? If you see one you like, pick it out.

• 35:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're confirming we will be in Denver for Crime Con this year. Yes, yes.

• 35:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Hundred, hundred percent. And we're going all out at Crime Con this year. It's going to be massive. There's over 6,000 people. Already signed up to attend. We have our code that you guys can use to let us know you're coming to see us. We exceeded, uh, the previous number, uh, which was our highest already. And we're still a few months out. So we have plans when we're out there. We're actually renting a double booth. We're going to have criminal coffee. We're going to have crime weekly. We're going to have merch. We're going to be there with our team. Where we might even do a podcast. I'm talking to Crime Con about that. We might just do like a Q and A like this. So we have some, some big things coming for Crime Con for sure. We're excited about it.

• 35:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, Alyssa Turney. Yes, I saw Alyssa Turney was, there's a, you know, right now she's trying to get the DNA for that case. If you follow Alyssa Turney, she posted something on her Instagram. She tagged me, she tagged Stephanie, she tagged, she tagged Crime Weekly and she ta- um, I shouldn't say she, you guys tagged all these people and Criminal Coffee. I saw it, so thank you. Immediately reached out to her on Instagram and through text, offered our services as far as Criminal Coffee and the funding. Also offered our services as far as break and bringing genealogists in to do the work. And she responded on Instagram and then sent me a private text. I won't say everything she said because it was case specific. I will say that she thanked me and said she thinks she has it covered, but if it, if it changed, she'd get back to us.

• 36:37Derrick Levasseur?

  So, thank you for tagging us and making us aware of it. I'm, I'm really happy to see that when you guys are seeing other content creators post when they're in need of help, that our, our tag is like the top most liked tag on that comment post. So, that's pretty cool and it means a lot.

• 36:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  They want to know if we knew each other before we did the podcast.

• 36:58Derrick Levasseur?

  Simple answer, no. I found you. I just, I just, uh, I just Googled YouTube true crime creators. And, uh, and yeah, basically, basically I slid into her DMs. Well, one more question because I think this is a good one and it kind of relates to the YouTube Live that we're doing today. This is from Random Thoughts. How do you prevent cynical, how do you prevent being cynical and burning out and burnout? And I think that's a really good question because it, it's, it can happen to anyone, especially when you're doing something like this every single week for five years. So, how do you prevent that?

• 37:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't prevent that.

• 37:35Derrick Levasseur?

  You don't? That's correct.

• 37:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  In fact, I just saw a, um, a video and it was like a neurobiologist and she said, me and my colleagues, we do not consume like the news or stuff like that because we're so well aware about neuroplasticity and how it can work to make new positive connections. in your brain, but it can also go the opposite way where it can make, you know, bad connections in your brain, where it can cause anxiety, where it can cause, you know, this cynicism that random thoughts is speaking of. And so they don't want to have this negative mindset.

• 38:19Stephanie Harlowe?

  So they purposely do not consume this kind of media with us. This is our job. And also a passion, a passion, a passion.

• 38:32Derrick Levasseur?

  You worked it out live for us there. That was great.

• 38:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  So we do consume it every single day and it does cause cynicism. Yeah. And I mean, I burn out every three months. I know when it's happening. I can tell. And I'm like, oh, you should really take a break. And but then I try to take a break and I just feel guilty. And I'm like, oh, there's so much stuff that needs to be, I can't just sit here and do nothing or relax. I definitely can't do that in my house because my computer is there and I can work or I could do this or I can clean. So it's just, I burn out regularly. I have ADHD too. So I feel like that's just, it goes along with the territory.

• 39:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  You don't have a shut off valve. You shut off when your brain, when your brain is like, all right, we're done. We have nothing left for you.

• 39:27Derrick Levasseur?

  So on the surface level for me, just like any job, sometimes you come into work and you don't feel like working. And I think that's the benefit of having a duo, a team, a friendship where there are some episodes I come on here and I'm just not into it. I had a bad day, a bad week, or I'm tired or I don't feel good. And I feel like with Stephanie and I, when we sense that from the other person, we usually are more friendly and we're more, it's almost annoying because we know that the other person's in a bad mood. And so we kind of pick each other up. And I'd like to think I do the same for Stephanie as well. You know, certain weeks where she's just not feeling it. I'm like, hey, let's just bang it out. And on a more personal level, just like a lot of people out there, there's a level of appreciation and thankfulness that comes into it where you're like, oh, man, I have to go record tomorrow for four hours and then have to upload all this stuff.

• 40:12Derrick Levasseur?

  And it's like, no, wait a second. Really think about this. You get the privilege of doing that. And I'm not saying that to be cliche. There are people out there that I know that you know, that are working 60 hours a week and a job they don't like to provide for their family. We enjoy what we do. We have a community of people who support us and support the cases we talk about. So I get the privilege of being in this beautiful studio with amazing people, covering a topic and doing what I love and getting paid for it. That's a privilege and it's not something I can take for granted because as quick as we gained this following, it can also go away if you don't appreciate it. So when I think about that,

• 40:54Derrick Levasseur?

  I go from being, you know, a little bummed that I gotta get up in the morning to most of the time being fired up. Like, yeah, you know what? You're right. I'm, I'm pumped. This is, my life does not suck. So that's what it does. So that's what it is for me.

• 41:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's just about knowing when to rest, which I don't think either of us do.

• 41:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, we, we do have a problem with that. But if we did rest too much, we wouldn't be where we are. That's why we are where we are.

• 41:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 41:19Derrick Levasseur?

  We put in the work. I'm doing YouTube lives from my bed after a hernia surgery. I mean, this is not normal.

• 41:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean,

• 41:24Derrick Levasseur?

  It's not normal.

• 41:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Multiple reasons, I'm definitely more cynical now than I was 10 years ago. Um, I don't even, I don't, I'm definitely not even close to being the same person and is that good? Yeah. Cause you kind of understand the reality of what's out there. You can protect yourself. You can protect the people you love. But is it bad as in you're just constantly remaining vigilant, hyper vigilant? You're kind of, you know, feeling anxiety all the time. When your kids aren't around, you're worried about them because anything could happen these days. It's not a great place to live. It kind of makes you want to just get off the grid.

• 42:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  But you can't.

• 42:06Derrick Levasseur?

  But you can't. But like, we're all human. We all go through it. Ups and downs, peaks and valleys. It's just trying to stay even keel. But I think this was good. I know we went a little longer tonight, about 45 minutes. I think normally to make a stronger commitment to it and to make a stronger commitment to our kids to make sure we're not here all night because it is a Friday night, just like everybody. Probably do these again, once or twice a month, maybe more. She's, Stephanie's actually probably waving to her kids right now.

• 42:31Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 42:31Derrick Levasseur?

  Uh, and Bella's coming into frame. Here she is. There she is. What's up Bella? So, she can't hear me, but um...

• 42:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  She just said I'm an iPad kid.

• 42:41Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm an iPad kid, yeah. You know what? See, just like you guys, we got these real guilt too, because our kids throw that at us. You know, I've been sitting on my iPad all day, you've been working, so... Um, yeah, we all deal with it. We're not just cartoon characters, so... Uh, final words from you Stephanie? Hi Bella?

• 42:58Speaker 02

  Hi!

• 43:00Derrick Levasseur?

  If you're on audio, Bella's waving at you right now.

• 43:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  This is how I prevent burnout, because you can't be around this happy little face. Oh, look, they're waving at you!

• 43:10Derrick Levasseur?

  There you go, look at that, they're doing the hard eyes Bella.

• 43:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh... Hi Bella!

• 43:15Speaker 02

  Hi!

• 43:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  Alright, I'll be done in five minutes.

• 43:19Derrick Levasseur?

  That's a, hey, that's a perfect segue right there to end this thing. You, Stephanie, final words from you?

• 43:27Derrick Levasseur?

  You're not doing too well right now, you're burnt out. You wanna talk about burnt out, you're looking at it, folks.

• 43:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  I recorded a video today.

• 43:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Exactly, I can tell. Well, my final words will be, we appreciate you guys being here, look forward to more of these in the future. I love that there's no preparation really going into it, we're just discussing what you guys are talking about, what you guys are interested in. I hope you guys have a great Memorial Day weekend. I know what Memorial Day is all about, we obviously want to think about and respect all the men and women who died serving this country, but this is also an opportunity to connect with your family members. And, and obviously honor that, but also have a great weekend and decompress and have some fun.

• 44:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Out here in, on the northeast, it's just been raining. Now, I think Derek called me today and he's like, "When are we gonna go live?" And I was like, "Is it raining where you are?"

• 44:13Derrick Levasseur?

  And in fact, actually, I just realized, you and I will be recording part two on Memorial Day, so that's fun.

• 44:20Derrick Levasseur?

  Didn't think of that one, did we? You didn't either. Right?

• 44:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  No.

• 44:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Wow, that sucks.

• 44:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is what it is.

• 44:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey, you wanna talk about cynical and burnt out? You just witnessed it right there. But um, guys-

• 44:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's raining anyways, who cares?

• 44:35Derrick Levasseur?

  It's raining, you're right. Guys, we appreciate you, stay safe out there, have a great weekend, we will see you next week. Until then, have a good night.

• 44:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye!